No Drivers Charged for Deaths and Injuries in Weekend of Carnage [Updated]

When it comes to deadly recklessness, drivers don’t need the New York Times to tell them to “Go for it,” as Charles McGrath did in last week’s paean to the urban supercar. After a stunningly violent weekend on city streets, the indulgent motoring fantasies of McGrath and his target audience appear all the more vacuous.

Henry Garcia was killed and Timothy Keith left brain dead by drivers in Brooklyn on Saturday. Henry's killer fled the scene. The driver who hit Timothy was not charged.

Then, at approximately 3:40 p.m. Saturday, Henry Garcia, 13, was riding his bike on 20th Avenue near 80th Street in Bensonhurst when he was hit by the driver of a green Ford SUV, according to the Post. Henry died Sunday at Coney Island Hospital. The driver remains at large.

Less than 90 minutes later, five-year-old Timothy Keith was struck by a cab driver while walking with his parents on Hicks Street in Cobble Hill. NYPD sources told the Daily News that Timothy ran into the street, and that the cab driver said he “couldn’t stop in time.” Yesterday it was reported that Timothy is brain dead. The driver was not charged. Timothy and his parents, all of whom are deaf, are from DC. They were on their first family trip to the city.

Deborah Munize, 59, was sitting at a bus stop at Montrose and Graham Avenues in Williamsburg at around 5:15 Sunday morning when she was hit by a curb-jumping livery cab driver. Munize was hospitalized in stable condition with leg injuries, according to the News. Driver Maximo Espinal later turned himself in and was charged with reckless driving and leaving the scene.

The Post reports that on Sunday at 8:30 p.m., Victor Felix, 57, was crossing Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard near W. 146th Street in Harlem when he was struck and killed by Garry Kinlock, a maintenance worker for NYPD. Kinlock was charged with DWI.

Based on published reports, to this point not one of the three drivers identified by authorities has been charged by NYPD, Charles Hynes or Cy Vance for taking a life or inflicting serious injury, though one left the scene and another was allegedly driving drunk.

Update: Streetsblog has queries in with the offices of district attorneys Hynes and Vance, respectively, regarding the crashes that injured Timothy Keith and Deborah Munize, and the suspected DWI death of Victor Felix.

Last I checked, there’s no law criminalizing injuring someone with a car. Right?

Of course, the automatic minimum penalty for carrying a gun without a permit – without even using it – is extremely steep compared to what any of these drivers will face.

That’s why they call it an “accident”, after all!

http://brooklynspoke.wordpress.com Doug G.

Compare the horrific, tragic, and utterly preventable incidents of just this one weekend with the story in the Brooklyn Paper about NBBL and the “disturbing” bike lane they are fighting to remove and you’ll see yet more evidence of just how cynical these people are. That is, if you needed any more.

There’s a safer city waiting to be made if only these agents of fear–and their megaphone holders in the media–would get out of the way.